getting fired for a low mystery shopper score?

I work in a busy retail store, and lately we've had mystery shoppers coming in pretty frequently. I got two average (i.e. not perfect) scores in the past week, and I got lectured for about 45 minutes and nearly fired over this... I see between 150 and 200 customers on a busy day, and I know i'm not the only one who's not receiving high scores.

I feel like the ax is coming soon, should I fight/argue with my boss or just leave quietly? The job kinda sucks, but I dont have anything else right now.

When I worked in running store I busted my balls for this woman who came in, I knew she was the mystery shopper. I did everything I was supposed to do, gave her a couple of freebies leftover from a promotion we had been running, gave her extra advice etc. Kunt still gave me a low score because she knew phuck all about running and thought i hadn't asked her the right questions.

Can't get sacked right away for bad scores, they have to go through the process of verbal warning, written warning etc. Read your employee handbook and see what it says

Originally Posted by GooBaaa

whats a mystery shopper?

They get paid to go into the store, buy some crap from you and rate you on a bunch of criteria supplied by management. Stuff like, did you say hi to them within 30 seconds of them entering store, did you try upsell, did you ask them to subscribe to mailing list etc. The staff don't know that these people are there to mark them.

Dude get some pride. Obviously do the job you are being paid to do but I highly doubt you are being paid enough to worry about **** like mystery shoppers. Don't take no ****ing 45 minute lecture from anyone earning less than £10 per hour either. Tell your boss to **** themselves and their lectures and to deal with you in writing. (srs). Keep your head down and do your job as per your contract. You won't get fired.

Mystery shoppers are a pain, but as long as the managers know you work hard and are reliable(show up to work on time, rarely call out for no reason, know how most of the stuff works in the store) a little thing like a mystery shopper isn't going to hurt you. They'd rather keep someone mediocre than risk hiring a lazy idiot(bc there are a lot of them in retail). Hope this helps OP

I work in a busy retail store, and lately we've had mystery shoppers coming in pretty frequently. I got two average (i.e. not perfect) scores in the past week, and I got lectured for about 45 minutes and nearly fired over this... I see between 150 and 200 customers on a busy day, and I know i'm not the only one who's not receiving high scores.

I feel like the ax is coming soon, should I fight/argue with my boss or just leave quietly? The job kinda sucks, but I dont have anything else right now.

well, even though it's retail, its still money and a job so you need to keep that in mind...

Try and diva better job, arguing w boss nets nothing, sulking away like a loser isn't an option. Try working it out and if you want to quit then let your boss know.

They are on your ass cuz regional and district managers are on theirs.

Dude get some pride. Obviously do the job you are being paid to do but I highly doubt you are being paid enough to worry about **** like mystery shoppers. Don't take no ****ing 45 minute lecture from anyone earning less than £10 per hour either. Tell your boss to **** themselves and their lectures and to deal with you in writing. (srs). Keep your head down and do your job as per your contract. You won't get fired.

This. I worked at Sears when I was 18 for 30 days through Christmas and this 45 year old 5'9 manlet manager tried to lecture me because I made a mistake when I was literally busting my ass trying to do a good job and sold something we didn't have in stock by accident.

I basically cut him off mid sentence when I realized it was a lecture and said "I grew up with good work ethic and I do my best job, Goodbye." Walked out on him.

Mystery shoppers suck but it's part of your job so you should just grin and bear it. I always did well with them because I put on that stupid happy face for every customer even when I wanted them all to die in an inferno. I was a store manager about four years ago and I remember reading reports about how rotten my assistant managers were when I wasn't in the store. One report said they just stood around and bashed the rest of the staff for 45 minutes and never even greeted the mystery shopper.

I discussed it with them in the office. I reminded them that I didn't mind if they had gripes about the store or staff but don't voice them in front of customers. The corporate office was out for blood but I wouldn't fire someone for a mystery shopper report. I waited until they f*cked up the deposit or no-call/no-showed on me.

What I remember being most upsetting about retail was when corporate would push us aggressively to slash labor to the point the only staff we could afford were three full-time managers and one part-time cashier but they could always find money for mystery shoppers and displays they had us take down within five days and for our district manager's expense account so he could fly to all the stores and tell us that we needed to work harder to greet every customer.

Cliffs:
Mystery shoppers suck but it's part of the job. You can't control everything someone else does.

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